Take the quick survey below and see how your family compares with other families/households in the Philippines:  

1. Question on poverty: Where (or How) would you place (consider) your family? 

• Not poor 
• On the line 
• Poor

2. Question on hunger:  In the last 3 months, did it happen even once that your family experienced hunger and not have anything to eat (because of poverty)? 

• Yes
• No

3. IF YES: Did it happen ONLY ONCE, A FEW TIMES, OFTEN, or ALWAYS?

• MODERATE HUNGER = Only Once or A Few Times 
• SEVERE HUNGER = Often or Always

 The questions above were the ones used in the First Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey (SWS) conducted on March 28-31, 2008. SWS had face-to-face interviews with 1,200 statistically representative household heads (300 each in Metro Manila, Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao), from 240 geographical spots selected from all regions. These are the results of the survey:

1. Where would you place your family when it comes to poverty? 

1 out of 2 families in the Philippines consider themselves “poor” – That’s equivalent to 9 million families whose household heads believe that they are poor. This brings back memories of what my Dad would always say to my brother and me. In his “sermons” he would constantly remind us, “Hindi tayo mayaman. Edukasyon lang ang maipamamana namin sa inyo kaya pagbutihin niyo ang pag-aaral.”

2. Question on hunger: In the last 3 months, did it happen even once that your family experienced hunger and not have anything to eat? 

15.7% of families in the country have experienced hunger in the first quarter of 2008. 15.7% might be considered small but this percentage is actually equivalent to 2.8 million families. Let’s say that the average size of the Filipino family is 4 (Data shows it’s actually higher than 4), then 2.8 million families x 4 members = 11.2 million Filipinos who have experienced hunger and couldn’t do anything about it because they didn’t have any money to buy food

b. IF YES: Did it happen ONLY ONCE, A FEW TIMES, OFTEN, or ALWAYS?

- MODERATE HUNGER = Only Once or A Few Times  — 12.5% or 2.2 million families 

- SEVERE HUNGER = Often or Always — 3.2% or 0.6 million families = 2.4 million Filipinos who often or always starve

Pause for a moment and let that sink in. And then think of the people who say to you, “Stop asking for reforms!Our country is doing fine.” Now I want you to imagine telling them off by saying, ”Two and a half million starving Filipinos beg to disagree.”

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